Steel Lard 2019

On Saturday, Jamie and I along with a collection of the fattest and lardiest gathered at Jury's Inn in Sheffield for the first Steel Lard.  The event was ably organised by Tom Davis.

Tom consults his mobile while Simon and Sammy
consider the tactical position

Tom had arranged things so that all of the players could play two short games and one long game.  I was umpiring throughout but I know Jamie got to try WW1 Chain of Command and Algernon Pulls It Off as his short games and a longer game of Sharp Practice set during the 1812 retreat from Moscow.  Other rules in use included Dux Britanniarum and  Richard Clarke's new Infamy Infamy.

Action from Mike Whitaker's Dux Britanniarum game

Infamy, Infamy!

In the morning I ran twice through a small Sharp Practice 2 scenario based on a solo game I'd originally played when I only had a few Maximilian Adventure figures painted.

Near the town of Tlaliscoya, a couple of groups of contre-guerillas, lost in the dense forest at night, have stumbled upon a deep gorge with a bridge defended by liberal guerrillas.

 

In the first game we had a narrow contre-guerilla victory with the red-coated contres making it onto the bridge as Tom called time.

The second game was a bit more one-sided.  The contres managed to get to the bridge first thanks to the vagaries of the activation system.  At one point they even managed to form a line formation of two groups.  Again time beat us but this time I was able to call a clear contre win. 

The bridge, by the way, was an emergency structure put together using the Jury's Inn's coffee stirrers wen I decided that the bridge I'd originally planned to use was too short.

In the afternoon I reset the terrain and we played my Menton 1940 scenario.

This was the fourth run through of the game after Crisis Point and a couple of goes at Posh Lard.  I think that's enough now.

This time was the first time we've played the four-player, semi-historical version in which the French get Renault FT-17 tanks.  The game was OK but it got bogged down into a fairly static fire fight after two of the three French tanks had been taking out by a well-positioned Italian anti-tank gun.

A well-positioned Italian anti-tank gun

I'd like to thank all of my players, who maintained a cheerful disposition despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

After packing away the toys, Jamie and I joined the merry throng at the Olde Queene's Head for a couple of drinks where Jamie was honoured with the "Hen of the South" award for most cowardly behaviour of the day.

Apparently, during the 1812 game he had refused to order his Russian militia to suicidally charge French grenadiers but had instead concentrated on mounting an artillery bombardment of a column of starving and frozen French civilians!